Seed to CEO

Growing in mature markets: How Justin Dye steers Schwazze

Justin Dye was brought into to Schwazze to help pivot it to a plant-touching business. In this final episode of Seed to CEO, learn: How and why Dye chenged the focus of the company How he decides which companies to acquire Why Schwazze remains focused on mature markets, like Colorado, instead of newer markets Who is Justin Dye? Justin Dye is chairman and CEO at Schwazze. He cut his management teeth at Albertsons, the grocer, leaving as chief adminstrative officer. He went on to adv...

How New Frontier Data leverages data in cannabis

Gary Allen has leveraged lessons from the high-tech and advertiisng industries to lead New Frontier Data as it provides the booming cannabis industry with accurate data on trends and insights. The company now serves over 30 markets. In this episode: Discover the vision behind how big data can help in cannabis Learn how lessons from the tech boom and bust should inform your cannabis strategy Who is Gary Allen? Gary Allen is CEO New Frontier Data, a data, analytics and technology firm...

Serial entrepreneur Chad Bronstein finds the cannabis opportunities

Chad Bronstein started his first businesses in high school. He built an agency working with major brands, but things had gotten too corporate. So he took the leap to build Fyllo, helping cannabis companies market. Over time, he has built a method to segment and target audiences, while educating brands on regulatory constraints. In this episode, find out: The mindset needed to jump into a high-risk, new role How he used networking to speed up his education in the industry The importanc...

Forever Young: Cannabis Industry Keeps Leaflink CEO Fresh

During his twenties, Ryan Smith had already started and sold two companies before he broke into cannabis in 2015 with the launch of his B2B technology platform Leaflink. One year later, he made Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list highlighting software technology entrepreneurs, buttressing his wunderkind reputation. Seven years on, Leaflink operates in some 30 markets and has some 12,000 business customers. In this episode of "Seed to CEO," you’ll hear what Smith did to get this far, including: Spott...

John Mueller and Greenlight: The biggest MSO you’ve never heard of

Greenlight, led by John Mueller, is one of the fastest growing multi-state operators in the United States, with operations in Missouri, Arkansas, West Virginia, Illinois and South Dakota. Mueller is executing an unusual strategy, buying licenses in "undiscovered" locations.  In this episode, learn: The logic behind his strategy Why he operates in off-the-radar locations How to adjust to changing conditions How he scores licenses Who is John Mueller? John Mueller has previously se...

Detroit Doer: When Investors Said “No,” Calyxeum CEO Rebecca Colett Kept Going

Rebecca Colett spent most of her professional career in analytical and leadership positions at some of the best-known financial and tech companies in America, including Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, GE Capital, IBM, and Red Hat. But that didn’t quench Colett’s professional passion, so the Detroit entrepreneur and her business partner started a caregiving business, teaching themselves the craft of cultivation and product manufacturing. They learned it well enough that in 2019 they expanded tha...

Barbarian at the Grow: How Jim Cacioppo and Jushi are Storming the Cannabis Industry

Jim Cacioppo cut his teeth in the financial world in the early 1990s with investment bank Wasserstein Perella. The bank was co-founded by Bruce Wasserstein, the hostile takeover pioneer portrayed in Barbarians at the Gate, the book about his 31 billion dollar takeover bid for RJR Nabisco. Cacioppo, after working at some of New York’s most storied hedge funds, broke into the cannabis industry in 2018, and co-founded Jushi Holdings, a growing MSO. He brought a "buy big" strategy with him i...

Arizona Roadrunner: Fife Symington Takes Copperstate Farms into the Fast Lane

Fife Symington IV is the CEO and Managing Director of Copperstate Farms, a vertically integrated cannabis operation he launched in 2016. This year,  Copperstate Farms was named to the Inc. 5000 List of Fastest Growing Private Companies in the U.S. Copperstate started as a 40-acre greenhouse; today it's a 1.7 million square foot canopy colossus. In 2019, Copperstate launched dispensary brand, Sol Flower, which now has five locations, including one that features a café and wellness class...

Call of the Wyld: Aaron Morris’ edibles success story

Oregon entrepreneur Arron Morris and his partners launched Wyld, an infused cannabis edibles brand, in 2016. Morris admits their first cannabis-infused candies were terrible. But he and his team persisted, pairing a winning recipe with a bold business plan that’s made them one of the top edibles brands in America. In this episode of Seed to CEO, hear Morris talk about:  Bootstrapping your business  Branding your business  Efficient distribution  Expansion in other states and other cou...

Young entrepreneur launches, expands cannabis packaging company

Barbara Fox planned on becoming a doctor, but then the cannabis industry came calling. In 2016, when Fox was 20 years old and still in college, majoring in biology and public health at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, her plan was to go to medical school. But her father and brother needed help coming up with packaging for their Nevada medical marijuana cultivation business, so Fox chipped in, and the Cannabiz Supply Co was born. Today, the company generates millions of dollars annua...

How an independent Maryland dispensary owner competes

Being a small business in the cannabis industry is tough and getting tougher, especially with all the advantages that multi-state operators and other big businesses have over independent shops. But a small number of small cannabis businesses have succeeded, writing their own David and Goliath stories.   One such entrepreneur is Hope Wiseman, founder and CEO of Mary and Main, a medical cannabis dispensary in Prince Georges County, Maryland. One of the youngest entrepreneurs in the business...

Fitness trainer gets off the corporate treadmill to thrive in Arkansas’ cannabis industry

Arkansas wasn’t on many people’s radars a few years ago when it came to cannabis legalization. But since legal sales started there in May 2019, Arkansas has proven to be a robust market, albeit with its challenges. One canna-entrepreneur making a go at it is Matt Shansky, who was climbing the corporate latter in the fitness space when his family queried him about breaking into the industry. Before long, he was converting a barn in Bentonville, which became The Releaf Center, the dispensary t...

Software executive Vanessa Gabriel in fast lane to success

Vanessa Gabriel is only 30 but has already launched three highly successful software companies, with the two most recent being in the cannabis industry. Gabriel sold her first cannabis business, an order-ahead platform called Greenlight Technologies, about a year after launching it, for a high nine-digit figure. Well capitalized, she launched her current company Drop Delivery in 2018. But Gabriel, a proud Filipina who’s also built a diverse company, also encountered plenty of rough patches a...

Keith Villa’s jump from craft beer to cannabis infused beer

Keith Villa’s jump from craft beer to cannabis infused beer  Keith Villa created Blue Moon in 1995 while working at Coors Brewing Company. Blue Moon became a massive success and changed the brewing landscape forever. After three decades of brewing, Villa and his wife, who has a background in civil engineering, leveraged their knowledge to create Ceria Brewing, a Colorado-based cannabis infused beer company, in 2017. In this episode of Seed to CEO, Villa shares:  How he and his wife came u...

Out of the Frying Pan, into the Fire: How One Oregon Couple Pivoted from Retail to Cultivation

Matt Walstatter and his wife Meghan were among the first cannabis retailers in Portland, Oregon and enjoyed early mover advantages for a few years. But Portland grew into one of the most saturated retail markets in the country, so the couple instead decided to focus on their nascent craft cultivation business. The problem? It also happens to be in one of the most saturated cultivation markets in the country. The Walstatters not only survived but thrived. This episode of Seed to CEO is a mu...

The Art of Steering Weedmaps

Chris Beals landed unexpectedly at Weedmaps in 2015 but since then has taken the famed ancillary business public and grown it into one of the most recognizable brands in cannabis. Beals spent his pre-cannabis life advising start-ups and deal-making in highly regulated industries such as healthcare and technology, but it took some tough on-the-job experience to prepare Beals for cannabis’ realities. In this episode, Beals talks about:    The importance of due diligence How Weedmaps han...

Thriving Fashion Entrepreneur Makes Clutch Decisions to Succeed in Cannabis

Brett Heyman had led PR efforts at Gucci and Dolce and Gabbana before launching a line of clutches in 2010, named Edie Parker, after her daughter, that quickly took off thanks to vocal fans such as Lady Gaga, Solange Knowles, and Kate Hudson. Heyman followed-up with a successful line of home accessories but for her third act pivoted to cannabis, launching Flower by Edie Parker in 2019. In this episode of Seed to CEO, Heyman takes listeners on her fashion to flower journey, discussing: How ...

How to launch a cannabis business for $50,000: Dizpot's John Hartsell leans on old-school customer service

Kim Rael Forges a New Business Model at Azuca

This former tech entrepreneur is shaking up the cannabis ingestible market, licensing fast-acting ingestible formulations to premium cannabis brands.  Learn how: Her interest in wellness led her to cannabis Azuca is using science to improve the cannabis experience Azuca's focus on quality runs through its brand How Rael thinks about scale 

How Detroit old-schooler Tim Schuler is building new cannabis consumers

Tim Schuler spent 15 years with Anheuser-Busch, “moving product from the manufacturer into consumer hands in another regulated market.” He sold 48M cases of beer a year.  When Michigan offered medical licenses in 2015, he applied. “I knew where the market was going.”  His company now focuses on concentrates and edibles, with a new drink mix.  Learn how he is tackling key obstacles, including: Increasing costs Winning over retailers and budtenders Direct to consumer marketing Wh...

Journeyman Keith Cooper Finds Reason to Stay at Revolutionary Clinics

Keith Cooper spent 20 years launching or rescuing businesses, mostly in the tech sector, before becoming CEO of Revolutionary Clinics, a vertically integrated cannabis business in Massachusetts, in 2017. Cooper stepped into cannabis figuring he’d build Revolutionary into a popular retail brand. But regulatory and other delays scuttled that plan and forced Cooper into a new strategy: wholesaling. That move helped place Revolutionary No. 4 on Inc. Magazine’s 2021 list of fastest growing privat...

Journeyman Keith Cooper Finds Reason to Stay at Revolutionary Industries

Keith Cooper spent 20 years launching or rescuing businesses, mostly in the tech sector, before becoming CEO of Revolutionary Industries, a vertically integrated cannabis business in Massachusetts, in 2017. Cooper stepped into cannabis figuring he’d build Revolutionary into a popular retail brand. But regulatory and other delays scuttled that plan and forced Cooper into a new strategy: wholesaling. That move helped place Revolutionary No. 4 on Inc. Magazine’s 2021 list of fastest growing pri...

Beaker and Wrench Finds Success in Solving Cannabis Industry Problems

Mechanical engineer Ace Shelander teamed-up with chemist Lilibel de la Puente to launch Beaker and Wrench, a company in Santa Monica, Calif. that makes specialty equipment for the cannabis industry. They began with a dosing pump for wiped film distillation and solving other problems that were “right in front” of them before moving into complete distillation systems. Their products were niche but had high value-adds and following that model has served the company well. Insights that Sheland...

Andrew DeAngelo’s Fight for Harborside and Beyond

Andrew DeAngelo and his brother Steve were legacy cannabis market entrepreneurs and “reluctant activists” before founding one of America’s most iconic cannabis businesses, Harborside Health Center Oakland in 2006. The DeAngelo’s helped pave the way for today’s legal cannabis industry, and in its heyday, Harborside was the “largest medical cannabis retailer in the world.” But when Harborside tried to expand into other states, Steve’s cannabis felony proved too big a barrier. The DeAngelo’s ...

Suits and Boots: PharmaCann Execs Get Dirty to Learn How to Grow

Brett Novey was recruited in 2016 by two pals from his accounting days to join them at a small start-up called PharmaCann, which had just won medical marijuana business licenses in Illinois and New York. The company was comprised of accountants, financial specialists and lawyers who were trying to learn to grow cannabis at scale.  “There was a big learning curve,” recalled Novey, who did everything from development and sales to cultivation and manufacturing before becoming CEO in 2019. ...

If I Can Make It Here: Etain's Women-led New York Success Story

Hillary Peckham initially had zero interest when her mother called to see if she’d consider starting a medical marijuana company together. But the younger Peckham changed her mind after researching cannabis and learning the benefits it provides to people across the country. In 2015, Etain Health was born in New York state. As COO – a post she still holds today - Hillary helped steer Etain through the New York market’s lean early days when there was a dearth of patients. But the compan...

Legacy + Business Education = Success for The People's Ecosystem

Christine De La Rosa, the co-founder and CEO of The People’s Ecosystem, a Bay Area cannabis company, started out in the legacy market where she built a community of cannabis customers and talent. De La Rosa also started and ran restaurants, galleries and other “mainstream businesses,” gathering executive experience. But that mainstream experience didn’t prepare De La Rosa for the unique challenges of being in cannabis, such as 280E and raising capital for a federally illegal venture. De ...

How Ruben Lindo Launched a Growing Canna-Empire

Ruben Lindo spent more than 20 years in the legacy cannabis market before a bounced check landed him in federal prison for 14 months. After getting out, Lindo briefly worked at a small construction start-up in upstate New York but in 2015 entered the cannabis industry as an advisor to an aspiring cannabis investor. Together, they founded CBD-focused Phoenix Nutraceuticals in 2018, and Lindo founded his THC-focused cultivation company, Black Mar Farms in 2019.   To make his cannabis compan...

How to speak at MJBizCon + Jim Belushi

MJBizCon conference organizer Stacy Putt gives the inside scoop on how to score a coveted speaking role at MJBizCon. Plus, a rebroadcast of our conversation with  actor-turned-cannabis business owner Jim Belushi. Belushi shares his story on how he pivoted from stage and screen to farm and field. He’ll share insights about launching a cannabis operation, converting an outdoor grow into a greenhouse grow, and switching from conventional lights to LED lights, as well as farming mistakes, firin...

Whole-Plant, Whole Business Papa and Barkley's Recipe for Cannabis Success

Papa & Barkley CEO Guy Rocourt is out to right the “outright wrongs” in cannabis, he tells host Chris Walsh in this episode of Seed to CEO.   The legacy market grower and processor has leveraged this ethos to build one of the cannabis industry’s most respected and successful companies. But it also took acquiring and implementing new business skills, something that Rocourt learned the hard way. Rocourt, a U.S. Navy veteran who did submarine duty, takes listeners on a deep dive to explore: ...

Be Smokey the Bear: How one cannabis CEO stops fires before they start

Scott Kenyon brought decades of tech company and board experience when he joined the board of Würk, a Denver-based payroll and human resources software company serving the cannabis industry. But when Kenyon was suddenly thrust into the CEO role a year-and-a-half ago, he had to switch gears from being an interested advisor to the company pilot. Being a tech industry veteran, Kenyon was somewhat in familiar territory, but this was cannabis, unlike any other industry he’d been in. What did Sc...

Move Fast: Quick Decisions, Appetite for Risk are Cannabis CEO Requirements

When Ankur Rungta wanted to break into the cannabis industry, he didn’t study cultivation or extraction. Instead, Rungta joined a top tier corporate law firm and later a Wall Street investment boutique where he sharpened his legal, finance and M&A chops. That gave him the expertise to launch Michigan-based C3 Industries, a vertically integrated cannabis company now in four states and going for more. But how did Rungta survive the challenges that finance and law couldn’t prepare him for i...

Pillars of Competitive Advantage: Beverage Guru Wields Brand Building Powers in Cannabis

Joe Bayern wants to make Curaleaf the “first truly national cannabis company in the U.S.” and with operations in 23 states, Curaleaf is getting there.   What did it take?   Bayern leveraged decades of experience in the beverage sector and other industries. Once at Curaleaf, he executed, taking it from 2,000 employees when he joined in 2019 to 5,500 today.   Key insights he’s learned along the way include:   Don’t underestimate the amount of change and the pace of the industry; be ready to ...

Medicine Woman: How Peak Extracts' CEO Beat Bro Culture While Healing Others

Katie Stem’s journey to a career in cannabis started with traditional Western medicine studies in college. That path took a left turn, however, when she was introduced to natural remedies while researching at Oregon Heath & Science University. She switched gears and completed a master’s degree in Chinese medicine instead. She decided to ply her entrepreneurial skills and medicinal expertise to launch Peak Extracts. Katie’s expertise, however, didn’t shield her from sexism and homophobia in th...

Modern Day Mary Kay: From House Parties for Edibles to Cannabis MSO

When wildfires struck Northern California a few years ago, much of Erin Gore’s life literally went up in smoke. The CEO of the Garden Society, a vertically integrated craft cannabis company in Sonoma County, came dangerously close to taking a finance deal that could have led to professional and financial disaster. But an astute and supportive business coach suggested another path for Erin, and today the Garden Society is on the cusp of going multistate. In this episode of “Seed to CEO,” Er...

Cracking the Safe: How One Entrepreneur Opened the Door to Cannabis Banking

In 2014, Sundie Seefried was six months from retiring as CEO of Partner Colorado Credit Union when she learned about the banking barriers for the cannabis industry. She postponed retirement to create a program that would provide safer, better banking options for operators. The result was Safe Harbor Financial, which has since processed more than $12 billion in cannabis-related funds and plans to go public on the Nasdaq soon. In this episode, Sundie shares: How she got dragged into the taboo...

Cannabis CEO & Royalty: How Dr. Chanda Conquered Two Highly Regulated Market

When Washington DC and Louisiana launched their respective medical cannabis markets, many entrepreneurs questioned whether the restrictive frameworks could be viable for businesses. But Chanda Macias saw opportunities to help shape those markets into communities focused on helping patients. Now, Chanda operates a dispensary in Washington DC and one of two licensed cultivation and manufacturing operations in Louisiana. Her deep roots and efforts at community-building led to one of the oldest M...

Catching Waves: How High Tide's CEO Seizes Opportunity

On a trip to India in the late 2000s, Raj Grover walked by a paraphernalia store selling glass pipes for pennies, accessories that would retail in Canada for $20. While he wasn’t a cannabis user at the time, Raj saw an opportunity. He parlayed that New Delhi encounter into a 500-square-foot head shop in Calgary with two employees. That lone outlet has grown into High Tide, a Canadian retail powerhouse with more than 100 cannabis stores. In this episode of “Seed to CEO,” Raj shares: How he ...

Keeping Up With Keber: How a Cannabis Trailblazer Reinvented His Role in the Industry

When Tripp Keber co-founded Denver-based Dixie Elixirs, he didn’t fully understand the ride he was stepping onto. Dixie quickly became one of the best-known brands in the market, and Tripp became a face of the industry, appearing on several mainstream documentaries about the newly legal product. After years in the limelight, Tripp realized that he preferred starting new businesses than managing established ones and made a graceful exit to remake himself – as a cannabis advisor via his new ve...

Eastbound & Down: How Colorado's Cannabis Market Didn't Prepare One Woman for Massachusetts

Meg Sanders has been paving the way for cannabis industry pioneers for more than a dozen years. As an early advocate for Colorado’s medical market and CEO of Mindful, one of the state’s first cannabusiness, Meg possesses a rare institutional knowledge of what one of the nation’s first marijuana markets looked like and what it took to survive. She then brought her Western U.S. sensibilities to Massachusetts’ red-tape heavy rec market, establishing Canna Provisions. In this episode of Seed to ...

Where the Grass is Greener: How a Journalist Made the Leap to Cannabis PR

Ricardo Baca made his cannabis industry name as the first marijuana editor at The Denver Post. The skills and connections he garnered in that career gave him the confidence to launch his own public relations venture, Grasslands, in 2016, but journalism didn’t provide him the business acumen required for success. In this episode of “Seed to CEO,” Ricardo talks with MJBiz CEO Chris Walsh about learning the ropes to create a successful firm. Ricardo shares: The critical role mentors played i...

From Pioneer to Public Exchange: How a Cannabis Tech Company Created a Road Map for Others

Jessica Billingsley's first foray into the cannabis industry was a direct investment in one of the first licensed marijuana companies in Colorado. But when she was tasked with identifying software to support the endeavor, she failed to find anything. So Jessica turned that vacuum into an opportunity and developed a seed-to-sale software, known as MJ Freeway, for the new industry. In this episode, Jessica talks about her journey from interested investor to CEO of a publicly traded cannabis fir...

Legacy Cannabis Lows & Highs: How an Oregon Operator Overcame a Roller Coaster of Regulations

An eviction notice on 4/20. That’s how Jesce Horton’s first foray into state-licensed cannabis cultivation ended in 2017. Part of it had to do with a one-in-a-million regulatory quirk that forced him to shut down a successful grow, and part of it was not being “passionate” about a not-so-successful retail arm. But Jesce remained confident in his process and product while never losing his love for the craft, so he tried again. The result is Lowd, Horton’s “dream company” that “embodies the ar...

Gridiron to Ganja: How Lessons Learned on the Field Shaped the Highsman Strategy

When Ricky Williams retired from the NFL in 2004, the headlines were overwhelmingly negative: “Famous football player gives up everything for pot.” But instead of becoming a story of downfall, the 1998 Heisman Trophy winner went on to study herbology and create his opportunity in the cannabis industry – after returning to terrorize NFL defenses for six more seasons. In this episode of Seed to CEO, Ricky and CEO Eric Hammond share insights on how they’re building a community with their Highsma...

Equity Equalizer: How the MCBA is Shaking up National Cannabis Policy

Amber Littlejohn cut her teeth helping craft policy for an industry built around “a regulated herbal product that the government doesn’t like” with the American Herbal Products Association. But when she began consulting for the Minority Cannabis Business Association in 2019, she found herself in love with a new challenge. In this episode of Seed to CEO, Amber talks about how she’s helped evolve the organization around its core mission of helping entrepreneurs access and thrive in cannabis mar...

From Boots to Bud: How a Mainstream Retail Pro Rebuilt The Source

Simon Nankervis led some of the biggest names in retail - American Eagle, DSW, Aldo Canada - before joining The Source in Nevada. But it took a dressing down from a subordinate before he really started to understand cannabis consumers. “In this business, you impact people’s lives every single day,” he told Seed to CEO. In this episode, Simon shares what led to that epiphany, as well as: Why it’s important to immerse yourself in the cannabis business culture before making big changes. How...

From NASA to Cannabis: How Tissue Culture Helped a Plant Scientist Find Her Voice

For Hope Jones’ first cannabis job, she served as chief science officer for a grower in Arizona. But as a newbie to the industry, she lacked the confidence to speak out against veterans making easy-to-avoid mistakes, despite her expertise. As frustration built, she saw an opportunity to bring clean-tissue culture to an industry struggling to get solid genetics. Today, the plant biologist operates two companies – a consulting firm focused on plant health and an R&D company that develops tissue...

Creating a Cannabis Business Community: How Cassandra Farrington Built MJBiz

The cannabis industry wasn’t front of mind when Cassandra Farrington set out to launch a resource for entrepreneurs. But as she and her business partner were looking for the right segment to provide their skill sets to back in 2010, the cannabis industry found them. Eventually the two set aside their other business endeavors to focus on building MJBiz into the brand you see today. In this episode of Seed to CEO, Cassandra shares: What she saw as the opportunity in the cannabis industry in...

Setting Up Success: From Voracious Acquirer to Prized Acquisition

When John Lord, a former head of a child-safety-seat manufacturer, started in the cannabis industry, he was viewed with suspicion by legacy operators because he was an outsider. But the CEO of Denver-based LivWell Enlightened Health quickly became a believer in the product. Cannabis was unlike any other product John had sold, but he realized that to successfully sell it, he still needed standard business practices. In this season finale of Seed to CEO, Lord dishes on the early days of buil...

Nu Horizons: How One Entrepreneur is Expanding Social Equity Access in Cannabis

Jeannette Ward Horton loved her time in corporate America, working for such mainstream giants as Coca-Cola, but the experience ultimately left her wanting to do something more meaningful. Enter: cannabis. From her early days in the industry, Jeannette noticed a gap in participation between white owners and others, so she decided to change it. She founded NuProject with her husband, Jesce Horton, to give minority entrepreneurs a way to get their piece of the cannabis industry pie. In this e...